In this empirical study, I explored thematic patterns in d’Holbach’s Système de la Nature. The overall purpose of my thesis was to compare the thematic structure of the corpus, in terms of co-occurrence and collocations of the 8 main themes, in human-reading and machine-reading. To achieve this, I used two methods: First, I used a qualitative data analysis software (NVivo 10) to do the comparative analysis of the main themes in consideration of examining the density of the appearance of each theme together. Next, I used RStudio Mallet software package for topic modeling to compare the co-occurrence of these main themes and to discover topics from the corpus. My results revealed that human-reading and machine-reading share only 12.5% of similarity in terms of semantically correlated themes. Additionally, topic models identified some marginalized themes associating with the philosophy of materialism, such as Cerveau, Nation and Vertu.

While many studies have examined the perception of second language (L2) learner competence by native speakers, few consider the perspectives of L2 learners themselves. This study seeks to explore the question of whether French L2 (FL2) speakers’ self-perceived communicative competence (SPCC) influences their sense of belonging with the Francophone community. To do this, I interviewed six FL2 speakers attending university in British Columbia, Canada. Their responses, along with my own self-reflections, offer firsthand accounts of FL2 learning experiences and identity formation as French speakers in a minority French context. These narratives illustrate that the relationship between SPCC and identity is complex, multifaceted and ever-changing, and that even though participants had varying perspectives of their L2 competence, all of them ultimately felt unable to fully claim membership in the Canadian Francophone community. This raises questions of legitimacy and belonging for FL2 speakers in the Canadian context.

The notion of the négresse, even though derogatory, is often used in post-slavery narratives in reference to the black female body. However, the representations of this notion and the persona is rooted in white patriarchal hegemony and its enabling institutions. I explore in this research, the representations of the négresse in literary narratives that recount her lived experiences through the historical events of slavery and in the contemporary structure of post-slavery. I theorize the concepts of trauma, and marronnage in the lived experiences of the black female body in the structure of post-slavery through the reading of Maryse Condé’s Moi, Tituba sorcière…Noire de Salem, Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Marie-Célie Agnant’s Le livre d’Emma. I use these three texts because they portray an identical characterization of the négresse that fits into the spatiotemporal continuums of slavery and post-slavery. This research aims to examine the concept of post-slavery as a contemporary ideology yet historically dependent, based on transferred racial-gendered prejudices that the négresse experiences. I reveal the historical construction and representation of the négresse as a model by which the contemporary black female body is defined and by which the négresse’s contemporary lived experiences are formed. I identify Eurocentric and male hegemonic narratives as limitations that repress the stories of the négresse. Therefore, this thesis supports the need for more intersectional criticism specific to the black female body.

In 1977, Roland Barthes presented a theory during a lecture at Collège de France: language is fascist. Language obliges us to speak rather than enables us to speak. Language houses power, and it is the duty of the intellectual to challenge the powers that be. Barthes posited that literature, for various reasons, including its constant shifting and transformation, allows for a writer to challenge the system of language within the written word. In 1987, Yasmina Reza’s first play premiered in Paris. In this analysis, I examine Reza’s theatre canon, which includes eight plays to date, looking particularly at her use of monologue, within the context of Barthes’ theory. Monologue is often a significant moment in theatre, however Reza employs monologue in seemingly nonsensical ways. In this analysis, I examine how Reza’s use of monologue challenges the system of language, both within her texts and within the sphere of performance.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether French immersion experience leads to a distinct, recognizable accent. Five native speakers of French, teaching in the Department of French at Simon Fraser University rated and evaluated the word, sentence and narrative utterances of 17 L2 French speakers living in a non-francophone environment, who completed either high school French immersion or Core French (FSL). Using first a 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) rating task for words, and a 1 (very native accent) to 9 (very strong foreign accent) for sentences and an extemporaneous narration, listeners rated the accents of speakers. Then, using a program ID choice task, listeners indicated which program the anonymous speakers had completed. Results suggested that French immersion speakers were rated differently and could be distinguished from Core French speakers at above chance levels, though success rates among listeners varied somewhat. Formal analysis demonstrated that longer utterances produced more accurate choices. Self-reports of immersion speakers suggested that they spent a greater amount of time with their immersion peers both inside and outside the school environment than with English program peers, possibly accounting for differences in L2 French accent. Acoustic analysis indicated that French immersion speakers produced some token sounds (ex. /u/) in a measurably different way from Core French speakers.

While the notion of cultural hybridity is often glorified in postcolonial theory, both the current situation of Beurs in France and the troubling themes expressed in French Beur literature since the 1980’s highlight an urgent need to redefine this notion. The goal of the present thesis is to redefine the utopian definition of hybridity by exploring its negative social and political repercussions in three of Azouz Begag’s canonical novels: Le gone du Chaâba (1986), Béni ou le paradis privé (1989) et Les chiens aussi (1995). The analysis suggests that hybridity should be seen as a socially constructed phenomenon and as such can contribute to moving beyond essentialist and absolute conceptions of marginal identities.

This thesis explores the metaphorical/stereotypical construction of “the Turk” depicted in the discourse of the political cartoons relating to the accession of Turkey to the European Union. Through a multimodal semiotic analysis of selected cartoons disseminated on the web between 2001-2013, this thesis aims to unfold how “re-contextualizing” a vast repertoire of historical metaphors and stereotypes represents the Turks and Turkey. From a theoretical perspective, this thesis also aims to reflect on the role of caricature in the construction of the Turkish image and the part it plays in the formation of an anti-Turkish discourse.